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Author: Kongona Sarma
Back home, I arranged the photo albums and came across an old sepia tinted picture, frayed at the edges. Behind it my father had scribbled in officialese “Bhutanese crossing the Manas River ”. It is a picture I have come across before and every time I looked at it I would wonder about this land, which is so near to my home, yet seems so magically different. After all Bhutan shares its borders with Assam, and is an hour’s drive from my father’s native village.
That picture and a very old book on Tibet that we had, made me dream of faraway places that I would love to visit some day. It’s funny how some dreams just come true, just when we least expect it.
I decided to take a friend from Mumbai to Manas Wildlife Sanctuary. Partly because it’s closer than Kaziranga and partly because I have not been there myself. Thanks to the Field Director of Project Tiger Manas, we got accommodation in the Inspection Bungalow, which is located on a cliff overlooking the river.
We went for early morning, evening and even late night safaris and nary a tiger to be spotted. We spotted elephants, including a mad one named Laden by the park rangers. Hogs and barking deer and Sambars and Golden Langoors, we saw it all barring the majestic feline that eluded us. The closest we came to was fresh pug mark and tiger droppings.I believe the animals, if there are any to begin with, make a foray only for the likes of Nat Geo and Bill Clinton.
I had an idea that the Bhutan border is pretty close to where we were staying and in the course of the conversation the guard told me that there is a hanging bridge some 13 kms from the Bungalow. Would I want to go there and spend some time in a village in Bhutan? I jumped at the opportunity.
The actual border was just a 5 minute walk. The check post was unmanned. Our guard walks by and opens the gates and we let ourselves in. Simple.
After an hour’s ride through the hills and by the Manas River, we finally reached the Pangbang village in Bhutan. We see a couple of Bhutanese guards. Our driver walks up and they start discussing something. Trouble. Forget permits, we were not even carrying our passports. Somebody starts spraying our car with chemicals. It’s only when the driver comes back with all smiles, I heaved a sigh of relief. Apparently, the Bhutanese are more concerned about not letting in bird flu from Assam than about people crossing over without papers.
The guard told me not to take pictures as it was not legal. Couldn’t be more illegal than our entry right? And I went trigger happy. And as I reached the middle of the bridge, a group of Bhutanese with their wares on donkeys came from the other side. Just like the picture back home…
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Comments:
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The article creates an emotional connect with the reader. The conversational tone is effective though the article needs some language and grammatical edits before it is ready for publication. Some of the sentences are short and seem very abrupt. The article needs to be formatted and structured to help it flow smoothly. The sense of déjà vu helps wrap up the article on a pleasing note.
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